On this plaza
bordering
San Diego and Tijuana,
A mother and daughter
Touch fingertips
Through thick steel mesh.
A rustling, like ribbons
Windblown from a child’s hair,
Storms up the bars,
Confounding the wall’s height.
Trash undone
By festival-goers hands,
Rises as kites.
The child doesn’t turn
To see carton
Feather into a bird
But sees flight
In her mother’s eyes
And believes it real.
She asks for wings, planes,
A swing to swing
That high.
The steel catches
The light of the sun,
Becomes a river on a kite’s tail,
Saturates the air
With the sound of fingertips
Brushing, like palm leaves,
The underside of grace.
Located within the Border Field State Park in California’s San Diego county, the half-acre Friendship Park includes a section of the border fence that divides the US and Mexico. On the US side, the park was formerly part of the Monument Mesa picnic area, but is now under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security and is heavily monitored by U.S. Border Patrols.
Friendship Park, by Caprice Garvin, was first published as Indolent Books WHAT ROUGH BEAST | POEM FOR DECEMBER 25, 2018, edited by Michael Broder
Caprice Garvin 
This makes my heart ache… Beautifully written, beautifully realized… Bringing humanity to the forefront. But then, I’ve learned to expect nothing less from you and your pen ❤
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Thank you so much, Carrie! What a beautiful thing to say.
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“Gorgeous poem! Tijuana and San Diego, a mother and a daughter. Every image is breathtaking and speaks of what’s coming, “A rustling, like ribbons / Windblown from a child’s hair,” or “In her mother’s eyes / And believes it real.” I loved the poem’s deep romanticism refusing to become sentimental. As Ms. Garvin says herself, in the ending two lines, this poem, too, brushes “like palm leaves, / The underside of grace.”
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Thank you for taking such time with my poem, Juan, and for the beautiful compliment.
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Your imagery is so tender, and so powerful. The eyes of the child…the heart of the mother. Their fingertips touched, and I felt the piercing pain of longing, and the intensity of hope and love. You captured it all, and my heart breaks each time that I read it. So very beautiful, and so very painful.
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Thank you so much for taking time with my poem. I am thankful that you find it powerful.
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You’ve painted a beautiful, yet touching picture of a reality so sad. But, like the daughter, you give me hope. Thank you.
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Thank you so much, Joanne!
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beautiful. xoxom
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Thank you, Madalasa. So glad you thought so.
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Brought tears to my eyes. I could feel the fingertips of the child. Heart-wrenching and very real.
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Thank you so much for reading, Britt.
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